Railway mileage-ticket.



No. 637,240. Patented Nov. 2|, I899.

G. W. DODSON.

RAILWAY MILEAGE TICKET.

(Application filed Jan. 27, 1899.)

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7 I UNITED STATES PATENT OF ICE.

GEORGE W. DODSON, OF LAIVRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

RAILWAY MILEAGE-TICKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 637,240, dated November 21, 1899.

Application filed January 27, 1899. Serial No. 703,576. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. DODSON, of Lawrence, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway Mileage- Tickets, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and eXact to enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains or with which it is most nearly connected to make and use the same.

My invention comprises certain new and useful improvements in railway mileage or other tickets, and is intended to prevent the fraudulent sim ulation or reproduction of such tickets.

As is well known, railroad companies meet with large losses each year owing to the fact that old mileage-books are replenished with new coupons or, as sometimes happens, a completely new book is made and printed in exact imitation of the old one that is nearly or quite used up.

My invention consists in providing such books with a slip or leaf of textile material having the name or other distinguishingmark so incorporated with the body of the leaf as to make the expense of reduplicating the said leaf so great that its counterfeiting will be impracticable and profitless and in providing the same with a canceling-diagram that will prevent its being used over again in any other books.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan view showing one mode of embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a crosssectional view thereof.

The leaf on is made from a strip of woven fabric, into which is incorporated, by interweaving, the name or initials or other distinguishing-mark of the company or party issuing the ticket. These figures may be woven in different-colored threads, preferably in such a way as to form raised letters or symbols in the body of the fabric, as is illustrated in Fig. 2. The distinguishing design may be made as complicated as desired.

The leaf or tag contains an indicating or canceling diagram formed of a series of spaces or numbers suitably arranged, preferably along the edge or margin, to readily permit the cancellation by the conductor of a portion of the diagram corresponding to the number of coupons removed or in the case of multipletrip tickets to the fares punched out. I have illustrated one form of such diagram in the drawings. It comprises a series of ruled spaces accompanied by numerals corresponding in some predetermined ratio to the number of coupons or trips on the ticket. In the diagram shown if each space represents fifty miles then each double space and the numeral beside it will represent one hundred miles, and the whole diagram will correspond with the coupons of a thousand-mile ticket, or the dia* gram may be composed of numerals alone suitably arranged to permit cancellation. This, it will be obvious, will prevent the reuse of the leaf by inserting it in a counterfeit ticket after the ticket to which it properly be longs has been partly used up;

The cancellation-diagram may be woven into the fabric, as in the case of the name or distinguishing-mark of the party issuing the ticket, or it may, if desired, be printed on the woven leaf. It Will be'practically impossible to make a fraudulent use of the leaf itself. Since the expense of building a loom that will weave such a fabric with such a pattern is very great, it is clear that the attempt on the part of any individual to counterfeit the leaf itself would be without profit and therefore unavailing. On the other hand, the cost per leaf to the railroads or others using large quantities of these leaves would be very slight. It will therefore be seen that I provide a means that is reasonably certain to prevent all counterfeiting of railroad or other tickets of the coupon class at a comparatively small cost per ticket.

It is of course immaterial whether the pattern represents the name of the company or some other distinguishingmark that they may select. Variations may also be made in the numerals or spaces forming the diagram for the canceling-punch, since each of these spaces can represent any desired number of coupons, it being important only that the diagram should cor-respond in some predeter= mined ratio to the number of coupons contained in the book or ticket. It will also be within my invention if the leaf or tagbe pasted to one of the covers, although perhaps as a matter of convenience it may be preferred to have it form a separate leaf.

Having thus explained the nature of the invention and described a way of constructing and using the same, though Without attempting to set forth all of the forms in which it may be made or all of the modes of its use, it is declared that what is claimed is- 1. A leaf for coupon or other tickets comprising a piece of Woven fabric containing a woven pattern representing a distinguishing mark or symbol, and having also along its margin a woven pattern forming a ruled indicating-diagram consisting of a series of spaces suitably arranged for canceling, substantially as described.

2. A leaf for coupon. or other tickets consisting of a piece of woven fabric having a Woven pattern forming a distinguishing name or mark and having arranged along its margin a series of ruled spaces and numbers corresponding in a predetermined ratio with the number of coupons issued with the ticket and constituting an indicating-diagram, substantially as described.

3. A leaf for transportation and other tickets comprising a piece of textile fabric having a raised woven pattern forming a distinguishing name or mark, and having also along its margin a Woven pattern forming a series of ruled spaces, suitably numbered, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 25th day of January, A. D. 1899.

GEORGE W. DODSON.

W'i tnesses:

GEo. N. GODDARD, A. W. ORossLEY. 

